


Tying the Knot

by Firenza



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon Typical Violence, Dinner Party, Established Relationship, F/F, Helplessness, Insecurities, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24666052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firenza/pseuds/Firenza
Summary: But even with the massive amounts of knives on her person (twenty three to be exact), she still couldn’t feel comfortable.The small box in her left pocket would probably be the cause of that. She’d rehearsed what she wanted to say a million times at this point. As if that could be enough. It wasn’t doing much of anything to calm her nerves. Her hands were still, not like they shook, and she still couldn’t manage to tie a tie.
Relationships: Azu/Sasha Racket
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Tying the Knot

Sasha stares at herself in the mirror, almost not recognizing herself. The suit Wilde had gifted her was fancier than anything she’d ever worn before. Thankfully, the jacket was loose enough that she could sneak most of her daggers into the sleeves and stitching. The rest were tucked away inside her pants or shoes. But even with the massive amounts of knives on her person (twenty three to be exact) she still couldn’t feel comfortable. 

The small box in her left pocket would probably be the cause of that. She’d rehearsed what she wanted to say a million times at this point. As if that could be enough. It wasn’t doing much of anything to calm her nerves. Her hands were still, not like they shook, and she still couldn’t manage to tie a tie. 

She undoes the navy tie around her neck. There was absolutely no way she had managed to tie the thing correctly that time, or any of the other dozens of times she had tried. She should ask for help; Hamid could do it in a flash, but she didn’t want to feel useless. Plus, he’d most likely left to help set up at least an hour ago. She could manage to help save the world and she couldn’t tie a tie. What would Eldarion think of her now? Probably be upset that she was in a suit instead of some frilly dress. Sasha smirks to herself at that. 

That doesn’t help to fix the tie issue though. Azu had shown her earlier, but her instructions had been lost on her. It wasn’t Sasha’s fault Azu’s voice was calming enough to make her zone out. She huffs and tries again, attempting to remember what Azu said. That train of thought gets diverted almost immediately as she sticks her hand in her pocket and touches the box. 

Tonight had to be perfect. She couldn’t afford any mistakes. 

The knock at the door of her room startles her but she doesn’t flinch. She’s the best thief in the world. Nothing like a small surprise is gonna scare her like that. “Sasha?” Azu’s voice floats muffled through the door. “Are you almost ready?” 

“Give me a sec!” She calls and looks back in the mirror. She undoes the messy knot and tries again, somehow managing to trap part of the lapel in it. Maybe her pride could take the hit. They needed to leave in- she glances at the clock- ten minutes ago. Defeated, she crosses the room and opens the door. 

Azu smiles warmly down at her and Sasha’s stomach does a little flip. She’ll never get used to being looked at like she’s someone special. Like she’s someone deserving of love. Azu’s dress is a light pink, bedazzled with small ruby hearts. The faux Heart rests atop her chest, glinting in the light. Sasha suddenly feels very plain next to her. Her suit is a simple black with threads of silver along the cuffs.

Her smile softens as her eyes land on the unfinished tie around her neck. “Do you need some help?” Azu raises an eyebrow teasingly. 

Sasha crosses her arms over her chest. “Maybe…” She was too nervous to simply ask for Azu’s help. Deep down, she knew Azu wouldn’t think any less of her for it, but the sick feeling of uselessness wouldn’t leave. A childhood of unanswered cries for help and having to survive on your own would do that to you. 

She shakes her head, a small smile still playing on her lips. “Let me help you.” Azu’s deft hands have the knot tied correctly in moments. “There,” she says, pulling the knot tight. “All done. You ready?”

Sasha bites her lip. The dinner party they were going to was bound to be crowded. While she didn’t usually mind crowds, they were the guests of honor and attention was bound to be on her and her friends- no, family the whole night. She’d made Grizzop a promise not to steal anything tonight which meant her hands were going to be staying inside her pockets. Right next to the box. She nods at Azu. “C’mon. Zolf’s gonna have our heads if we’re too late.”

The walk through the streets of Cairo is short. The party was being held at a hotel not too far from the old al-Tahan manor. Tonight was the fifth anniversary of when Cel had managed to discover the cure for the infection. Unfortunately, they were in Sweden with Wilde and Barnes distributing said cure to some of the temples so they wouldn’t be in attendance tonight. Sasha was rather disappointed about that. She and Cel got along like a house on fire. Sometimes literally. 

Sasha holds Azu’s hand as they walk. She’d only been back in the city for a week and Sasha has to leave again in a few days to meet with some people in Madrid about security work. So she was going to enjoy the little bit of time with her family as much as she could. And maybe, hopefully, leave with a fiance. 

When they arrive at the hotel, there’s already a steady stream of people pouring through the gates. Sasha recognizes one or two of them as fellow Harlequins, but the rest are either too dressed up to be recognizable or completely unfamiliar. Einstein stands in the doorway frantically shaking everyone’s hand as they enter. His eyes light up as Sasha and Azu approach.

“Hey!” Einstein rushes over to them, gathering Azu in the tightest hug his bony frame allows. “You two made it!” 

Azu gently hugs him back. “We wouldn’t miss it for the world. Is everyone else here yet?”

He shakes his head. “Yes. Well, I haven’t seen Zolf yet, and Cel and Wilde are running a bit behind. Got caught up in Stockholm or something. They should be here later in the night though.”

“Cel and Oscar are coming?” Sasha asks. “I could have sworn Zolf said they were in Sweden until next week.”

“Well that’s what was supposed to happen, but Curie wasn’t about to let either of them miss this. The whole thing is about Cel’s discovery, right? So, it only makes sense that they should be here.” Einstein continues to chatter as he leads them through the crowd and into the ballroom. 

Round tables covered in golden table cloth surround a marble dance floor. Silver curtains and tapestries line the walls. Most of the guests haven’t bothered to sit yet and Sasha could spot Hamid chatting with a few people. Grizzop stands next to him, thoroughly disinterested in whatever conversation they were having and not at all trying to hide it. His bow is strapped to his back despite the fact that he’s surrounded by people that cost more money than Sasha’s had in her entire life. He spots her and Azu and breathes a sigh of relief. 

“Thank Artemis, you two showed up.” He leans against the table closest to them. “I’m going to shoot the next person that tries to ask me any questions about anything. I’ve been here for ten minutes and I’ve probably managed to piss off most of the crowd.”

Sasha can’t help but laugh softly. “Sounds about right, mate. You can’t go five minutes without getting into some sort of argument.”

He glares at her and lightly punches her arm. “I don’t know how Hamid does it. He’s been here longer than I have and I think about twenty people have tried to flirt with him already.”

“He’s a people person,” Azu says with a shrug. “Plus this is more or less what he was born to do.”

“Entertain people who are only interested in you because you’re famous?” Grizzop pushes off from the table. 

“Sounds like we’re going to have to fight our way out of this crowd by the end of tonight.” Azu says. 

Sasha snorts. “It’s a good thing I have as many knives as possible on me today then.” She pats her jacket. Even with all the daggers sewn in, it doesn’t make a sound. Good. She’d be worried if it did. 

Hamid eventually makes his way over to them, Zolf trailing not far behind him. Sasha bends down to hug both of them. A surprise to them and herself. Dating Azu had made her more accepting of physical affection. A hug here. A kiss on the cheek there. Azu knew her well enough to know when she didn’t want to be touched. Just one of the many reasons Sasha had fallen for her so hard in the first place. 

They fall into easy conversation after that, telling stories of their time apart and trying not to think too hard about the past. Sure, meeting them was the best thing to ever happen to Sasha and she wouldn’t change that for the world, but many of the memories she had of their travels were things she didn’t like to remember. She assumed they all shared that sentiment. 

She finds it hard to focus on the conversation; her thoughts drift to the box in her pocket and her earlier incompetence with a tie. Her and Azu had only briefly talked about marriage, and while Azu had spoken of it dreamily, she hadn’t implied that it was Sasha she wanted to marry. And what if earlier made her realize that she didn’t want to be with someone who couldn’t do basic things like tie a tie? What if the growing number of Sasha’s business trips were a deal breaker?

A tap on her elbow breaks her from her spiral. Zolf looks up at her and gestures away from the group. She gives an almost unnoticeable nod in return. Thank the Gods for Zolf’s perceptiveness. It would have been easy enough to swallow her fears and go about the rest of the night, but she really would rather not do that. She didn’t need to hide anymore. 

Zolf makes some excuse for the two of them to leave and leads her away from the group. They find an empty spot along the wall. For a moment, they stand there enjoying the silence. Zolf keeps his hand on Sasha’s wrist. Once upon a time, that little bit of touch would have earned him a dagger at his throat. Now it’s grounding, giving her something other than her insecurities to think about. 

Eventually, Zolf speaks up. “You, uh, you alright? I know these parties can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.” He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. 

She opens her mouth to say she’s fine. That she just needs some quiet. But even if she could convincingly pull off that lie, it wouldn’t be true. She needs much more than just some quiet. Maybe she could sneak out and climb to the roof. No, she decides against that. She’d just be running away from her problems then. She crosses her arms over her chest tightly. “Guess I just got up in my head a little. Got a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Zolf agrees. “If you want to talk, I’m all ears.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the box. Zolf makes a soft ‘oh’ noise as she opens it to reveal a ring adorned with two small black onyxes and a larger pink sapphire in the center. “Sasha… that’s wonderful! I can understand why you’re nervous though.”

“I mean, yeah I’m nervous but…” She snaps the box shut and tucks it back into her pocket in a flash. Zolf raises an eyebrow, urging her to continue. “I’m not sure she’d want me as a- I don’t know if she’d want to be married to me.” It sounded so much more real saying it aloud. She wanted to be Azu’s spouse. Her _wife._

“We are talking about the same person right?” Zolf asks. “Azu? Tall? Bald? Can punch someone out a window with minimal effort? Loves and cherishes you?” 

Sasha snorts. She knows Azu loves her. Hard not to when she says it about five times an hour. And Sasha loves her too, more than she’s ever loved anyone in her life. But… she’s Sasha. A former thief. A nobody up until recently. And Azu is the most wonderful person she’s ever met. She doesn’t deserve someone like that.

“Sasha. Sasha, look at me.” The tone of Zolf’s voice leaves no room for argument so she drags her gaze from the floor to his face. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be loved. And if Azu wants to love you, who is anyone to stop her?” 

She feels her face heat up. Had she really said all of that aloud? She was really in a bad way. She glances back at Azu who has her head thrown back in laughter at a joke someone told. The twinkling light from the chandelier dances across her face. Sasha could live in that moment forever, staring at her girlfriend.

But something behind Azu catches her eye. One of the guests seated at a nearby table had his sights fixed on their group. It wouldn’t have been out of place. Everyone in attendance was here to celebrate them after all, but there was something in his gaze that was unsettling. She nods her head towards him to get Zolf’s attention. “There’s something off about that guy?”

“What?” He looks between the guest and their party. “He looks fine to me. Just staring a little too much. Not really that unexpected.”

She exhales sharply. “I still don’t trust him. I can’t place it, but I trust my gut about these kinda things.” She sidles against the wall and starts stalking towards the table. If he notices her, he doesn’t show it. Good. It would be a problem if he did. It would mean that she’s getting rusty. 

There’s a flash of silver and a rush of air right beside her head. She glances and sees a dagger buried into the wall. Her own daggers are in her hands in seconds as she scans the crowd for who had thrown it. Nobody seems to have noticed it; which meant it probably came from the edge of the crowd. But no one looks suspicious. She frowns and grips the hilts of her daggers tighter. 

Then the ballroom explodes.

Fire bursts from the dance floor, catching the table cloths and drapings along the wall in the blaze. It’s not magical fire, so there must have been a bomb planted in the floor. Hamid flies above the crowd, bronze wings glinting in the fire as he frantically searches the crowd. Most of the guests start to flee, tripping and trampling those in their way. Smoke billows from the explosion site. Sasha stays at the edge of the room trying to get a read on the situation. She can’t make out anyone in the rush of people.

Another dagger wizzes past her head, this time shaving off a few hairs at her temple. She ducks down to avoid a spell thrown at her. Standing up, she comes face-to-face with the man she’d been stalking earlier. His fancy suit was gone, replaced with a horribly familiar black cowl. 

She takes a swipe at his neck. He dodges and grabs her arm. Searing heat blazes from his palm, burning through her sleeve. She grits her teeth and does not scream. Taking another swing, she successfully digs her dagger into his shoulder. With a sweep of her leg, she knocks him to the ground and stabs him in the throat. She doesn’t bother to check if he’s dead.

When she rises, wiping blood off her face, Grizzop comes flying out of the crowd as he fires arrow after arrow at other cult members. They knew there were still groups of the Cult of Hades around, but Wilde had insisted that they weren’t a priority. Maybe he’d been wrong. 

Another explosion goes off behind her, throwing her into a nearby table. The table snaps in half from the force. Wilde had definitely been wrong. She tries to move but nothing happens. Through the adrenaline, she realizes there’s a large chunk of wood stuck in her leg. And she can’t feel a thing. Her back may actually be broken then. Wonderful. She’s out of commission until someone heals her then. Useless once again. 

There’s no one around for her to throw a dagger at so she lays there. She objects to removing the wood from her leg. She’d have to deal with what would almost certainly be blood loss after that. Twisting around to face the rapidly escalating fights, she notices Azu surrounded by four cultists. She’s equipped with nothing but her fists and a chunk of marble from what used to be the dance floor. Her rosy pink dress splattered with blood and scorched from the flames, she looks like a character out of a painting. 

Azu smashes the rock into one’s head, but the others fire spells into her back. She shouts in pain and rears on one. Hamid flings something from above. He’s obviously itching to cast fireball, but Azu’s too close and he won’t risk hitting her. Sasha wants to rush over. To stab them all and make sure they can’t hurt anyone else ever again. She’d throw a dagger but, like Hamid, the thought of accidentally hurting Azu… she can’t even entertain the idea.

She’s not sure how long she lays there, watching Azu fight a losing battle. Zolf joins her after a bit, armed with a halberd he got from who knows where. But it’s two of them against a seemingly unending wave of cultists in a building that’s going to collapse on them any moment. And she can’t do anything. She’s stuck laying on a broken table, unable to help her friends as a building crumbles around her. At least she could fight at Edison’s.

Her hand flies to her pocket to check for the box. An immense sense of relief washes over her as she pulls it out. Losing the ring would have been… well it would have been bad. She spent a lot of money to get it custom made and it would be a pain to have to get another. 

In the distance, sirens wail. How long has she been laying here? Time was moving at an indecipherable rate. Had it been hours or mere minutes? 

She blinks and Grizzop appears. He’s standing over her, eyes wide with worry. His mouth is moving but she can’t make out the words. Come to think of it, the crackle of the fire and roar of battle has faded away as well. Someone must have come along and rounded up the cultists. Another battle won. Her eyes start to flutter closed. She could take a nap, right? She’d earned at least that.

There’s a hand on her shoulder shaking her out of her daze. Cel has joined Grizzop in front of her. They’re covered in soot, blood, and grime and the hand they have on Sasha’s shoulder is staining the nice suit Wilde gave her. Hamid could clean it with a snap of his fingers though. It would be fine. She should get him to do that before she proposed. But maybe a nap first. She’s exhausted. 

When she opens her eyes again, she’s in a slightly uncomfortable bed dressed in a soft, pink robe. Groggily, she sits up. Pink covers the room from the sheets to the walls to the curtains in soothing, yet somewhat garish tones. The Hospital of Aphrodite, then. What was she doing here?

A wave of panic washes over her suddenly as she remembers the party. The explosions. The fire. Anxiety rises in her stomach as she realizes that someone had to have changed her into this robe. The idea of being so vulnerable and at a stranger’s mercy… nauseating.

She experimentally tries to wiggle her toes. They’re slightly stiff, but move nonetheless. That’s a relief at least. 

The door swings open quickly and she instinctively reaches for a dagger only to come up empty handed. All thoughts of stabbing are quickly thrown away as she sees Azu standing in the doorway. Her expensive dress has been swapped for her priestess robes. Sasha smiles at her. “Alright, Azu?”

Azu says nothing, but crosses to her and sweeps her into a tight hug. Sasha pushes down the reflexive panic and hugs her back. When Azu pulls away, there are tears brimming in her eyes. She quickly wipes them away, taking Sasha’s hands into her own. “I’m so happy you’re okay,” she whispers.

“Yeah, well… I’m guessing that’s thanks to you,” Sasha says, rubbing small circles into Azu’s hand with her thumb.

She shakes her head. “No… Grizzop and Cel got you out. You were…” Azu swallows thickly. “You were really hurt and I couldn’t do anything about it. Sasha, I- I promised to protect you and I couldn’t even do that when it counted.”

“There was nothing you could’ve done, Az…” Sasha pauses searching for the right words. “There were a lot of them and not a lot of us. It’s not your fault. None of this is.”

“That’s-“ She takes a deep breath. “You’re right.”

She smiles at her. “Is everyone else okay?”

“Other than being incredibly shaken, we’re alright. Hamid almost lost a wing, but that doesn’t really matter when they’re magical and can apparently grow back.” Azu shakes her head in disbelief. “Cel and Oscar apparently knew but they couldn’t get a message in time. That’s why they were coming down. A smaller group of the cultists caught up to them in Stockholm.”

Sasha hums and glances to the side. Where she sees a small box sitting atop the nightstand. Well, there goes that surprise. Azu looks over at it as well. Neither of them say anything for a long moment. 

“Screw it,” Sasha mutters and unclasps her hands from Azus to grab the box. Screw all of her insecurities. “I was going to do this last night and this isn’t the most romantic place for this, but…” Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax, Sasha. It’s not like you’re asking her to marry you or something. 

“Azu, you are the best person I’ve ever met. You always treat people with kindness, but also aren’t afraid to smack someone with an axe when they deserve it.” She chuckles softly and takes Azu’s hand. Tears have welled up in Azu’s eyes. She furiously scrubs at her face 

“When we first met, you stood up to a dragon for me, even though you’d known me for, what? Three, four days? You’ve saved my life countless times. I don’t know if you want to be by my side for the rest of our lives, but I wanna be next to you.” She flips the box open. “Will you marry me?” 

The question is barely out of her mouth before Azu is nodding so hard Sasha’s afraid she’s going to get whiplash. “Yes. Yes. A million times yes.” She leans over and presses a soft kiss to Sasha’s cheek. “Yes.”

A wide grin breaks out on Sasha’s face. She pulls the ring out with deft fingers and slips it onto her hand. Sasha rests her forehead against Azu’s, smiling so wide her cheeks hurt. 

For one moment, she can pretend that she didn’t almost just lose her legs. For one moment, she can pretend that she and her family are safe. For just one moment, she can pretend. 

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my crusade to add as much femslash to the RQG and TMA fandoms. If you have a ship and a prompt you want me to write, DM me @flood.fyre on tumblr or insta!


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